NW Scheduler/Publisher - Updates, Support, and Suggestions

[jayrtom]

Hello

 

Can anybody help me understand this statistics? 

 

Why the currently being worked is different than the assigned and not worked diferente than unassigned?

 

Thanks

[BigMAC]

I have a strange phenomon in NW. We are using Territory helper but in the long run we will most likely replace it with the Territories in NW. So I have exported all stuff from TH to NW as a start. That works just fine.
But, i noticed some oddities. We have a user in TH, lets call him Brother Humble. He have is done with the territory and everything looks ok in TH. But in NW it shows that his wife had taken and returned that very same territory. Not only that, she had taken it out twice but completed only once the very same date.
See the attached picture. Its in swedish now but it says
Assigned 30th of May and Completed 24th of June.
Again Assigned 30th of May and then not completed.
So NW says this is delayed.
I have pixelated the names but there is the same name on both rows. Same person but the wife of the actual person how got this territory in TH...

So this is really strange, I have no idea why it does not accept the brothers name... And a fun thing is that she does not even have a account in TH so NW must somehow import her name instead of his...?
Any ideas or suggestions?

[More4me2do]

HOUSTON we have a PROBLEM in the NWS Territory Module!

 

To set the stage I have finished early in 2025 digitizing all our territory in NWS using as map service provider the Bing Satellite view when it was still available. In addition I compared its results for accuracy with the Google Map service plus consulted the Department of Assessments and Taxation to ensure that the address is a residence and not just a plot belonging to some developer.

 

Since the change of dropping Bing and replacing it with the Map Service providers OpenStreetMap, MapBox and ThinkGeo in the territory module ALL the map service providers are now faulty and incorrect.

1. When clicking in the satellite view on a clearly visible dwelling place some will now show "unnamed Road" while others will have an incorrect or erroneous address.
2. When correcting addresses in any given territory by right clicking on the address ALL the map service providers now show the same results either an address which is not existing in the Department of Assessments and Taxation data base or an incorrect street address number.

This will now be a problem or lengthy process for adding addresses of newly build homes to territories. For finished digitized territories the Google and Bing map services will help with the maintenance. A plea to the developers please either bring back the Bing Map Service provider or correct the present ones.

 

Something is VERY fishy here, I have never seen Map Services to agree and show the same results for a particular address. It almost looks like as if NWS's 3 different Map Service providers are all working from the same data base which is either corrupt, outdated or faulty in some other way. Please bring back Bing.

Edited September 24 by More4me2do

[foghorn]

1 hour ago, More4me2do said:

ALL the map service providers now show the same results either an address which is not existing in the Department of Assessments and Taxation data base or an incorrect street address number.

Some general food for thought: I am an editor for OpenStreetMap and have added many features for our territory over the last few years. These eventually show up in NWPublisher maps. A couple observations:

• Satellite maps vary quite a bit - both in age and detail. One map might show a house, but it is missing on another map. New construction and very rural areas especially.
• I am convinced the map services "borrow" from each other. I have added features in OpenStreetMap that show up a few weeks later on Bing and Here maps.
• Map edits can take weeks to work their way through the system. Each zoom level updates at a different pace, so you might see a change on level 13, but not on level 14. 
• In my experience, the county land survey maps are the most accurate for determining street names and house numbers. Even here, though, their maps show details based on which satellite pass they use.
• Google maps seem particularly bad for precise house numbers.

[More4me2do]

Thank for replying and I do value your contributions in this thread. Since you are an editor for OpenStreetMap I have included an image using OpenStreetMap that makes my point. 

 

The correct address is 11337 Teakwood Ct and it was created using Bing in March 2025. According to the taxation department the primary structure of this residence was built in 2000 the first sale of this house was in 2008. There should be no time factor since 25 years have passed to get this in the maps. In March 2025 I created this territory and Bing was spot on NONE of the providers listed in NWS now get this correct and ALL of them show unnamed Road. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. 

 

The only explanation I have is something quite serious has happened in the Territory Module with the map providers. None of the points you make are applicable in this case. Since these errors did not appear after they replaced Bing with Mapbox and added ThinkGeo satellite view, I did a spot check to see if they can be used for adding addresses and they were the same as the ones Bing entered.

 

So if you have access to the developers, pass on the thought that they have a serious problem with creating new addresses unless this is just the case in the US.

 

Edited September 24 by More4me2do

[foghorn]

12 hours ago, More4me2do said:

The only explanation I have is something quite serious has happened in the Territory Module

I checked your sample address on several maps. Google and Here both show the street, but OpenStreetMap does not. Nor does it show a name for nearby Cocobolo Pl. Either (1) No local mapper ever added the name to the streets  (2) Someone deleted the street name (either accidently or purposefully). Of course, if the street name is missing from the actual OpenStreetMap database, NWS using OSM will not find it either. 

 

It is quite possible that ALL the map suppliers in NWS borrow data from OSM. Then the missing street names will propagate to all of them. As an experiment, what if I were to edit OSM to add that street name? Theoretically, it might show up on your maps in 1-3 weeks. What do you think?

[More4me2do]

3 hours ago, foghorn said:

I checked your sample address on several maps. Google and Here both show the street, but OpenStreetMap does not. Nor does it show a name for nearby Cocobolo Pl. Either (1) No local mapper ever added the name to the streets  (2) Someone deleted the street name (either accidently or purposefully). Of course, if the street name is missing from the actual OpenStreetMap database, NWS using OSM will not find it either. 

 

It is quite possible that ALL the map suppliers in NWS borrow data from OSM. Then the missing street names will propagate to all of them. As an experiment, what if I were to edit OSM to add that street name? Theoretically, it might show up on your maps in 1-3 weeks. What do you think?

 

Your explanation makes perfect sense and that is what I was afraid of. In my initial digitizing project I sampled some addresses using Google, Bing and Here to make sure the addresses were correct and all three were giving the same results. Then I used the Bing Satellite view in NWS to finish our digitizing. Now the only thing left is boots on the ground verifying that the maps are correct and delete or add addresses according to what is really there in the territory using Google and Bing.

 

I posted this just to make anyone aware of the fact that the creating of addresses at the moment in NWS is broken and unusable as either you get wrong street names, wrong numbers or "unnamed road". Google, Bing and Here give you the correct addresses but all the map providers in the NWS are unusable.

 

If you want to experiment that is fine and may give us an answer to the question do Mapbox and ThinkGeo use OSM as it looks right now that they do? But my situation is that our territory is finished and only corrections from boots on the ground is now needed. Thank you so much for putting a perspective on this problem.

Edited September 25 by More4me2do

[Eejay]

On 9/16/2025 at 3:04 PM, jayrtom said:

understand this statistics?

The columns only relate in total . They do not really cross refer.

The figures in the right column relate only to the time period you have selected, in your case 6 months. During the period of 6 COMPLETE months prior to when you ran the report (not the current month if not finished), 7 maps are still out of those that were checked out during that time. It ignores all the other maps just showing them as Not Worked.

 

The Territory Coverage report might be more use to you.

[Floyd]

20 hours ago, More4me2do said:

I posted this just to make anyone aware of the fact that the creating of addresses at the moment in NWS is broken and unusable as either you get wrong street names, wrong numbers or "unnamed road". Google, Bing and Here give you the correct addresses but all the map providers in the NWS are unusable.

 

Its working fine for me in my area in the USA. I am using ThinkGeo.

 

 

[More4me2do]

2 hours ago, Floyd said:

 

Its working fine for me in my area in the USA. I am using ThinkGeo.

 

 

 

Well guess what, the very screenshots that I posted and that @foghorn confirmed, can no longer be reproduced. So, in the last 22 hours this was fixed. As I quoted in my earlier comments that when they replaced Bing with the present map service providers several months ago, I tested their accuracy and it was fine. Therefore somewhere in the bowels of the code maybe something was corrected that did not require a NWS update.

[Floyd]

19 hours ago, More4me2do said:

 

Well guess what, the very screenshots that I posted and that @foghorn confirmed, can no longer be reproduced. So, in the last 22 hours this was fixed. As I quoted in my earlier comments that when they replaced Bing with the present map service providers several months ago, I tested their accuracy and it was fine. Therefore somewhere in the bowels of the code maybe something was corrected that did not require a NWS update.

 

If NWS connects directly to the mapping service then it could have been a mapping service problem not a NWS problem. NWS requires the mapping service to work properly in order for NWS to work properly.

[More4me2do]

3 hours ago, Floyd said:

 

If NWS connects directly to the mapping service then it could have been a mapping service problem not a NWS problem. NWS requires the mapping service to work properly in order for NWS to work properly.

 

That would be another explanation that the connectivity between NWS and the mapping services were disrupted in whatever form that would be. In addition when comparing Google, Bing and Here there were always slight differences, however, all three of NWS map services showed the same results when I took the screenshots, now there is a slight difference at least in the satellite views.

[BigMAC]

How have you done when it comes to special talks in NWS? I have set it under Events. But when scheduling talks I do not get any hint that the date is already taken. Like with Memorial, if I choose that then I see that there is a Memorial. But how to get the same for other events?
Now I have been busy getting talkers and they must have missed it too since I have managed to book other talkers to us and they have booked our talkers for that date.

Maybe I need to ask NWS to add a category called Special talk...?

[Floyd]

7 hours ago, BigMAC said:

How have you done when it comes to special talks in NWS? I have set it under Events. But when scheduling talks I do not get any hint that the date is already taken. Like with Memorial, if I choose that then I see that there is a Memorial. But how to get the same for other events?
Now I have been busy getting talkers and they must have missed it too since I have managed to book other talkers to us and they have booked our talkers for that date.

Maybe I need to ask NWS to add a category called Special talk...?

 

You can choose Special Talk in the schedule. Is that what you mean?

[BigMAC]

On 10/5/2025 at 12:17 AM, Floyd said:

 

You can choose Special Talk in the schedule. Is that what you mean?

Hi! No, not directly, I can add the special talk in the Schedule. So I have set it as Other speaker in Local and wrote just Special talk since the talker is not decided yet. But I get no hint in Public talks away that that date is a special talk.
I would like that if I set Special talk as a event, then it should make that date so that I cannot book it for something else.
For example, If I make a Event and marked it as Circuit Assembly, that date turns purple in both Local and:
 
Then date is in purple and I get also a text:

So there is no question that I should not book that date.
But If i make the event as other then that purple thing does not show and no text is shown.
I will contact NW and ask if they can add Special talk as a own event type. That should do the trick.

Have a great day or night or morning depending where you are and when you are... 😁
 

[Marky]

@BigMAC

I did not know about this issue but I just confirmed exactly what you are saying.

I put in a dummy event weeks into the future.  In the Events page I used the Other category.  I entered the words Special Talk in the Event Name field.  Then when I go to the Schedule page the event is not reserved.  It does not show up on the chosen date or block you from entering and overbooking a duplicate talk.

I think it would be great if you contact NWS and suggest that Special Talk be added to the dropdown or at least they could code the Other category to work the same as the Memorial, etc.